An upgrade a downgrade?? (GeForce 6100 w/7800GT)

[Nox1]

I upgraded my motherboard to the new Biostar TForce 6100 (GeForce 6100/410 chipset) and the video card to an EVGA 7800GT CO. Coming from a Shuttle SN95G5 and a 9800 AIW, I was pretty excited to see the new hardware in action.

Well, I have to say, I'm rather disappointed in the all around performance. Examples: Doom3 is barely hitting 60fps with vsync disabled. Far Cry is rather choppy...well, choppier than my 9800AIW is. And these were running at 1024x768 with no AA or AF!

Just this past summer I put a 6800GT in my Shuttle and I was hitting around 70fps in Doom3 at 1280x1024 and it was smooth as glass (The 6800 had the 16 pipelines unlocked).

Something is bottlenecking this setup, but I can't seem to find it. It's probably something small and ridiculous that I overlooked.

Any thoughts?

Here's the rest of my system (only the motherboard and video card were upgraded):
Amd64 3000+
EVGA 7800GT (78.01 and tried 81.84)
Biostar GeForce 6100 motherboard
1 gig Corsair Value select
160gig Seagate IDE harddrive
Antec Truepower 400watt psu

 

[GRAFiZ]

Have you installed the proper motherboard drivers?

The NForce driver series?

Without those your performance will lack.

Go to your Device Manager and see if anything is flagged... you can find it in the control panel under system.

 

[Leper Messiah]

need new mobo drivers.

BTW, Doom 3 is frame capped around 60FPS. I don't think I've ever seen a higher FPS in that than like 64.

 

[Nox1]

Nope...nothing in the device manager is flagged. Everything is working fine.

The drivers were my first thought. I'm using everything the included CD had on it. I've even looked for new ones, but nForce 410 chipset is pretty new. There's nothing on Biostar's site and Nvidia doesn't even have a download for it.

AnandTech did a review of the motherboard not too long ago and even a performance follow up:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2539&p=1
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2553

Both of these reviews use the onboard video, and unfortunately not an addon card for any comparison.

I would have thought Nvidia would have made the first reference drivers work nicely with their own hard ware like the 7800. So, if it is the drivers, this rather stinks!

 

[Leper Messiah]

if your 3000+ is stock, it could be bottlenecking...other than that, IDK.

 

[Nox1]

That's a good thought too... I did over clock it to see if the processor was the fault.

At 2.1ghz the performance saw only a 2 frame increase in Doom3. This is upsetting, because like I said, I put a 6800GT with my 3000+ (at the default 1.8ghz) and at 1280 I was in the 70s for a framerate.


Btw, a timedemo with vsync off will show framerates beyond the capped 60 if the card is powerful enough.

This is interesting, check out Anand's CPU Battleground article from 2004 for a quick graph using a 6800Ultra: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=7

Their overclocked Amd64 3000+ @ 2.0ghz was getting 76fps@1280. This 7800GT of mine should be doing that.

 

[UlricT]

why did you pick up the integrated gfx mobo? It looks like an entry-level solution. The Nforce 4 is more proven...

 

[Nox1]

Originally posted by: UlricT
why did you pick up the integrated gfx mobo? It looks like an entry-level solution. The Nforce 4 is more proven...

For several reasons...but mainly because I was looking for a good mATX board and the choices were limited. Also for the integrated video, not that I planned on using it now, but it makes it easier to build another system with the motherboard later on if I ever upgrade from this.

Perhaps you're right. An nForce or the Xpress 200 might have been a better choice.